1LC22.         Deuteronomy 26:4-10.   Moses reminds the Hebrews that in Egypt God Yahweh “heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.  He brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand” and “gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.”  Not only for the Hebrews but for all those who make themselves his, God provides for us now and forever.

Luke 4:1-13.   “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.”  The Holy Spirit was putting Jesus in his humanity through a spiritually- growing and learning experience.  Jesus was still developing from being a carpenter in Nazareth to becoming a teaching, miracle-working Messiah who would be ready to give himself up to be the redemptive sacrifice on the cross.  Jesus in his humanity was coming more and more to entrust himself to the Holy Spirit who was enabling him to be more than a match for the devil and the trials of this world.  Humanity on its own is no match for the devil and the powers of this world but for God all things are possible.  It was Jesus in his humanity, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who repulsed the temptations of the devil.  Defeated, the devil “departed from him for a time” but only to try to tempt Jesus in other ways and forms later.  In this world the devil’s hatred for the goodness of God never stops.

Psalm 91.   “Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.”  “Say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.’”  When we call upon the Lord, he hears us and provides for us in his own way and good time.

Romans 10:8-13.  “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”  “For, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Salvation belongs to those who choose in heart and word to belong to the Savior.  Choose to accept the love that Jesus gives us from the cross.  His divine love is the only source of eternal life in a world that of itself can only give us a grave, buried below six feet of dirt.